234 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. [6] 



also that the close-time should be by tides, and not by hours, as is al- 

 ready the case in the Tweed. 



With regard to reducing the number of fixed engines now plying, a 

 great deal of power rests with the Crown as owner of all the fishings on 

 the sea-shore ungranted, and surely the public are entitled to look to 

 the Crown to exercise that power. (1) If the Crown were to carry to 

 its legitimate issue the inquiry set on foot in 1859 as to the titles of all 

 persons exercising fishing on the sea-shore, a large number of persons 

 now fishing without a title would be turned off. (2) Every proprietor 

 whose title had been examined and found satisfactory should be entered 

 on a register (a copy of which should be sui)plied to district boards), 

 and a certificate to that effect should be granted him by the Commis- 

 sipners of Woods and Forests, which he should be bound to exhibit at 

 all times when asked by proper authority, care being taken, of course, 

 to provide that this was only a certificate of title, and not of legality of 

 any mode of fishing. (3) After a reasonable interval to allow proprie- 

 tors to send in their titles for examination, it should be declared that 

 all persons not in this register, and not provided with certificates of 

 title, should be liable to prosecution and penalties for illegal fishing, 

 which should be rigorously enforced. Any proprietor j)roducing a good 

 title after prosecution instituted to be liable in all expenses. (4) In all 

 the fishings which would thus lapse to the Crown, and all those pres- 

 ently in its possession, let or unlet, the Crown might be exi>ected to 

 forego making profit at the expense of the public good, and prohibit 

 the use of fixed nets to all its lessees. If these suggestions were carried 

 out, the number of fixed nets would be greatly reduced, and it would 

 then become much easier to make regulations regarding the number of 

 nets to be allowed on a certain expanse of shore, distance from rivers, &c. 



C— THE HERRraG, COD, A:N^D LING FISHERIES OF 1882. 



1. THE HERRING FISHERY. 



The herring fishery of 1882 Avas, with the single exception of that of 

 1880, the largest upon record. In 1882 the total number of barrels cured 

 was l,282,973i, while th(i number cured in 1880 amounted to 1,473,6001 



The particulars of the results of the fishing of last year, when com- 

 pared with those of 1881, show a considerable increase in the herrings 

 cured and exported, but a decrease in those branded and in the amount 

 received for brand fees. The returns are : 



